Spring Saturday Series Starts Spring Cup Yacht Races in Hong Kong

Yachting—Hong Kong

‘Electra’ on her way to winning line honours in the second IRC race of the Hebe Haven Jeanneau Spring Saturday Series on the first day of this 5-Day, 10 Race contest at Shelter Cove on Saturday Feb 22. ’Electra’ had a successful day winning line honours in each of the two races and taking 1st and 2nd places, respectively, in the two races on corrected time. ‘Electra’ also won the IRC Division-1 RHKYC Spring Cup on Sunday Feb 23, 2014. (Bill Cox/Epoch Times)

The first race-day of the Hebe Haven Jeanneau Spring Saturday Series took place on Feb 22 with 31 boats taking part. Meanwhile, the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club’s Spring Cup was also held last weekend.

The Jeanneau Spring Saturday Series, held in Shelter Cove, comprises 10-Races in a 5-Race Day regatta that covers IRC, HKPN categories and Dragon boats.

The Race Officer on the first day, Cathy Delany-Hobbs, set two-circuit, windward/leeward sausage courses for both races in variable 8.5 knot winds. There were two starts, one for IRC and the other for HKPN and Dragons. Due to time constraints, the course for HKPN and Dragons was reduced to one circuit for the second race. IRC Electra, Ambush, Vixen, Talkinghead, Stella, Goddess, Outrageous and Lighthorse, and other familiar names in Hebe Haven Yacht Club’s races took part, but a few additional boats were entered including Ramrod, a Farr 40 One-Design, Cave Canem and Lady Butterfly.

But it was old favourites that took the lead positions.

Electra took line-honours in both races and finished first on corrected time in Race-1 ahead of Ambush and Vixen.

In the second race Electra was pushed into second place on corrected time by Vixen. Ambush came third and Talkinghead took fourth place. Newcomer Ramrod took fifth and seventh places respectively in the two races.

HKPN Although often faster than other HKPN entrants Bits & Pieces is again competing in HKPN category for this Spring Saturday Series but Owner, however Toby Jenkin-Jones anticipates moving back into IRC category for the summer races.

Bits blasted off from the start line and took line-honours in both races. She completed the course some 5-minutes ahead of all of the other HKPN boats in the first race but Kyte took first place beating Bits on corrected time by 1-minute. Getafix came in third with Justin Shave in Jazz fourth and Ichiban in fifth place. In Race-2 the first four finishers were in the same order, but newcomer Zulfigar pushed Ichiban back to sixth place.

RHKYC Spring Cup The two races in Saturday’s Hebe Haven Jeanneau Spring Saturday Series were also part of the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club’s Spring Cup, with Races-3, -4 and -5 held on Sunday Feb 23.

For the Spring Cup the boats were split into IRC Division 1, IRC Division 2 and HKPN.

The winning order in IRC Division 1 for this 5-Race competition was Electra, Vixen, Ramrod, Talkin head and Red Kite.

In IRC Division 2, despite a 4th place in the last race, Cave Canem just managed to stay ahead of Goddess with Lady Butterfly coming in third.

The winning line-up under HKPN ratings for Division 1 was Red Kite, followed by Vixen, Talkinghead, Electra and Ramrod.